Barkley’s stories make its city star

September 16, 2018

28-year-old photographer, Travis Young, has tried to take his life twice. Ultimately, he began to use film to help him understand the emotions he was trying not to feel because of his abusive childhood. And Kansas City agency, Barkley, has made its film, Waste of Film, to document Young’s story for National Suicide Prevention Month.

“I think most photographers consider 90% of what they shoot to be a waste of film and 10% to be where a simple image becomes something powerful,” explained Barkley director and editor, Josh Dubois, who made the film. “It’s in that margin where Travis lives daily and why he encourages all photographers to keep wasting film.”

The film is part of a documentary series, KC Loves, led by Dubois and produced by Barkley, which celebrates creativity in art, business and life in Kansas City. It includes a toll-free number to the national suicide prevention hotline at its end. Young told his story publicly to an audience at Barkley headquarters in 2017. His account of abuse, depression, suicide and resilience inspired Dubois to tell Young’s story on camera and become the ninth creator to have his story told in the series.

The series’ other creators include bookstagrammer, Patience Randle, of @inkandfable; local jazz legend, Bobby Watson; Chris Ciesiel and Cristin Llewellyn of The Campground, where cocktails, nibbles and Midwestern hospitality bring people together; and Aaron Shipps of print shop, Bedrock Art Editions, who is keeping the art of printmaking alive.